Giving Directions

Recently I was sitting in class zoned out and thinking about how next summer was going to be different than this summer.  When I zoned back in, I realized that my teacher had been giving me instructions for a partner activity that we were supposed to do next.  His directions were confusing and jumbled, and I realized that I had already missed half of the steps.  But I was too afraid to stop him and ask him to start over.  I knew how it felt to be that teacher that had planned and thought this out to the point where I would get upset if they were not paying attention to my fabulous lesson.  At the end of the multistep instructions, he asked what all teachers asked, "Any Questions?"  Of course, no one raised their hands. I didn't know if others had understood it and were ready to move on or if they were as afraid as I was.  After 18 years of being a student I depended on my survival techniques, turned to my partner and asked, "So….what are we supposed to do?"  My partner looked at me with a deadpan face and said, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."  It clicked.  This is how my student's feel.  I often have the ADHD students that are non-medicated.  How do they handle it?  How do they deal with the fear of not understanding the directions, the fear of speaking out, and the fear of failing the assignment.  I consider myself an outspoken person, yet it wasn't until 5 minutes had past that I asked the teacher to go over the instructions one more time.  As the teacher went over the instructions, I looked around and saw the looks on the other teacher's faces.  Most of them felt similarly to me.  Yet, how can we expect our students to speak up if we as teachers don't?